Koraput

Mrinal Chatterjee

Window Seat 

I went to Koraput after many years. Located in the Eastern Ghats, Koraput is in the southern part of Odisha, bordering Andhra Pradesh. A line of hills marks its outer boundary to the east reaching a height of 5486 feet at Deomali, the highest peak of Odisha, near Pottangi and 5316 feet at Sinkaram Gutta near Araku on the Andhra Pradesh border.

The train journey from Raygada to Koraput through deep forest and hills, tunnels and high bridges was refreshing. I found many people, including senior citizens from West Bengal coming to visit and spend 2-3 days in Deomali.

At one point of time Koraput used to be known as one of the most backward districts of Odisha. Along with Bolangir and Kalahandi they formed ‘KBK’ districts- one of the most impoverished parts of India. Those days are over. Consistent effort by the State and Union government, setting of institutions and industries attracted investment and provided employment and business opportunities. Improved connectivity facilitated vertical and horizontal movement.

But Koraput town has lost its old world charm and serenity. The clean look has been replaced with dirty and dusty sprawl of an unplanned district town. The town of Gopinath Mohanty has changed; the mystique charm is gone.

Baripada Indigenous Film Festival

Indigenous films are films made by, for, and about indigenous and aboriginal peoples in various parts of the world. Among the earliest known indigenous films are those made by Navajo people as part of an experiment in indigenous image production conducted in the 1960s by US visual anthropologists.

In India, post new millennium films are being made in indigenous (mostly tribal) language in increasing numbers thanks to the ease provided by the new technology for production and distribution of content.

For example Santhali language films now have its presence in states of Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam and parts of Nepal (especially Jhapa District and Morang District), where Santhals live.

An Increasing number of documentaries and short films are also being made in different indigenous languages across India foregrounding tribal issues and concerns.

Baripada Indigenous Film Festival has been showcasing such initiatives for the past five years. Its sixth edition will be held in mid-December in Baripada, Odisha. See their facebook page for details.

Incidentally, Baripada and Ranchi happen to be the hub of Santhali film industry.

Charles Correa

Charles Mark Correa, one of the most celebrated architects of modern India, who built iconic buildings like Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, Rajasthan and Ismaili Centre, Toronto, Canada- was born on 1 September 1930 in Secunderabad. He did his higher studies in Mumbai and obtained his Master’s degree from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), USA. He returned to India and started designing low cost, environmentally sustainable buildings.

My son, who teaches Architecture in a State University is a big fan of Correa and keeps on talking about his open-courtyard style and use of traditional methods and materials.

I have been fortunate to visit many of Correa designed buildings, the latest being the Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal.  Located on the bank of the majestic Upper Lake, Bharat Bhavan houses galleries for exhibition and indoor and outdoor auditoriums. Theatre, musical programmes, literary discussions are held here round the year. When I visited, an art exhibition by Swapan Tarafdar, an Indore Art college trained award winning young artist and one Gond tribal art exhibition were going on.

Correa was also known for his sensitivity to the needs of the urban poor. He was the Chief Architect for New Bombay (Navi Mumbai) from 1970–75, where he was strongly involved in extensive urban planning of the new city.  In 1984, he founded the Urban Design Research Institute in Bombay, dedicated to the protection of the built environment and improvement of urban communities. During the final four decades of his life, Correa has done pioneering work in urban issues and low-cost shelter in the Third world.

He breathed his last on 16 June 2015.

Graffiti as protest art

Graffiti as protest art acts as an important tool to form social consciousness, create networks, operate accessibly, and be cost-effective. Social movements produce such works as the signs, banners, posters, and other printed materials used to convey a particular cause or message.

The civil rights movement in the US was probably the first time Graffiti Art became a prominent form of social protest. It has long been used in India as well, especially in Bengal.

Graffiti has been used extensively during the protest against the heinous rape and murder of a Medical student at R G Kar Medical College, Kolkata. The graffiti includes slogans, rhyming couplets and lines from popular songs/poems, besides graphics.

Namak-wali Chai

Any historical city eventually will be divided into two parts- one old and the other new, the old with narrow roads with winding by lanes, crowded bazars interspersed with historical monuments; and the new with wider roads, swanky markets and modern buildings. From Bhubaneswar to Bhopal- it is the same story. But the best food and takeaways would always be available in the old part of the city.

In Bhopal, I was accompanied by Lal Bahadur Ojha, a young teacher of MCU. He said, we must take the namak-wali chai. Called Sulemani chai, it is unique to Bhopal.

So we took an auto, the ubiquitous public transport of Bhopal and went to Purani Bhopal to a shop named Patel Chai. It is a small and dingy shop. We squeezed into narrow wooden benches. The tea arrived.

Unlike the tea of Ladakh, it is neither buttery nor salty. It tasted sweet- differently. Lalbahadur asked, how is it? I replied, it is different.

-      Yes, they put salt and sugar to accentuate the taste of the sugar. So it tastes different.

I realized why people are so passionate about Bhopal. It has a different charm. Here even the ‘namak-wali chai’ tastes sweet.